The Nutcracker at The London Coliseum Review

The Nutcracker

The London Coliseum

We were thrilled to be able to watch the English National Ballet’s performance of the Nutcracker at the London Coliseum theatre.

Upon arrival, the box office stand staff were great, we heard them advise another couple on the best place to sit as the gentleman was very tall. They then turned their attention to us, our tickets were promptly printed and we were advised where our complimentary programme was and pointed to our seats.

We were delighted that our seats were four rows from the front and right in the middle, we could see everything clearly! The seats were comfortable and we settled down with five minutes to spare. At this point we had a quick glance at the programme, which gave us a quick run down of acts 1 and 2 and all the information on the cast performing for us. It also held some interesting facts about the show itself, for example ‘There are 400 Swarovski elements sewn onto each of the nine Sugar Plum Fairy costumes’… and boy did they sparkle!

The stage curtain had lovely Christmas scene on it to get you into the mood of the show as its set on the night before Christmas.

The show its self was basically split into two, the first act consisted of the story, the music really did the storytelling whilst the expressive dance enhanced the feel of the music, complimenting it very well. There was so much going on in in the first half at times you did not know where to look, but that was great as you were never bored.

The second Act started off continuing the story for about five minutes and the rest of the act was chance for the cast to show off the beautiful dancing skills – mesmerising would be a good word to describe the dancing.

The backstage guys doing the props and screen changes did a marvellous job. Sometimes you did not even see the changes happening to the scene as you were so wrapped up in the story. Some of the props used were amazing and we particular liked the falling snow curtain. The costumes were so detailed and precise. We loved the Sugar Plum Fairy’s and the Mouse Kings costumes the most! You could see all the hard work that had been put into this production had paid off.

We had a seat price of £75 and have to say it was worth every penny, being so close to the stage you could see every detail. Seat prices range from £10-£75 making it accessible to all.

Although we did not feel very Christmassy by the end of the show, we certainly felt like we had watched something special.